~~~~~

What’s the easiest way to read Poems of the Week? In your email inbox, hot off the cyberpress! Just sign up for our free Substack here.

WEEK OF APRIL 13

by Ruth S. Baker

“At an April 1 White House Easter lunch, Paula White-Cain compared Donald Trump to Jesus, citing parallels to betrayal, arrest, and false accusation.”
—MSN
“[Pope Leo] reminded everyone that the prayers of those whose ‘hands are full of blood’ will not be heard by Jesus.”
—MSN

“You’re so like Christ!” croons Paula to her bud;
The Pontiff reads the Book a different way.
No doubt those nails left His hands full of blood,
But that is not what Leo meant to say.

by Dan Campion

“The Artemis II crew saw parts of the moon never seen before.”
—NPR

A ball of rock and dust, the Moon attracts
But does not welcome us. Its silver disk
On close inspection turns to cataracts
Of ancient scurf and powder. Yet we risk
Catastrophe to get there and return,
Touched by the Moon, with our impressions of
Her grace. We pray with every rocket burn
That Newton’s iron laws show us some love.
We haven’t sent a poet yet. No need.
Keats never met Achilles, never stood
Upon a peak and watched a sunset bleed
Across the North Pacific. Yet he could
Be there in Darien, be there at Troy,
Be there when Cynthia made Earth her toy.

by Julia Griffin

“The tiny Queensland town of Cooladdi, population two, has a pub and a post office. It could be yours for $400,000: The new owner will serve as the Australian town’s postie, publican, cook and shopkeeper”
—The Guardian

Dance to Cooladdi, start a cool faddi,
Dance to Cooladdi, they need a hand!
Dance to Cooladdi, have you seen the addi?
Dance to Cooladdi, be a one-man band!

You shall be a posti, you’ll be grilling toasti,
Doing your utmosti, with a happy grin!
Though the town’s a ghosti, far from any coasti,
You shall be a hosti, pouring out the gin!

Dance to Cooladdi (train can’t be haddi),
Dance to Cooladdi (must go by land)!
Dance to Cooladdi, if you are maddi:
Spring for Cooladdi—just 400 grand!

by Nora Jay

“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who served as President Donald Trump’s defense attorney during his New York City criminal trial in 2024, said he would thank the president and tell him, ‘I love you, sir,’ if Trump fired him or chose another person to serve as Pam Bondi’s permanent replacement for attorney general.”
—People

I love you, sir! His voice was choked,
His visage adoration-soaked.
The nomination’s not yet cleared,
But now there’s little to be feared:
The GOP is surely stoked.

Such love is worthless if it’s cloaked,
And fragile egos must be stroked:
It’s not enough to be revered.
I love you, sir,

The nation’s acting law-chief croaked;
Then, at the journalists convoked,
He dutifully sneered and jeered.
But, though it was both gross and weird,
There’s really not a hope he joked
I love you, sir.

by Marshall Begel

“Seth Todd, the Portland protester who first donned an inflatable frog costume and spawned an international trend, has been ordered to stay three blocks from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the South Waterfront for three months.”
—The Seattle Times

Though one of us was prosecuted
while marching as a frog,
don’t think our rhetoric was muted
or write our epilogue.

This further motivates persistence
to fight like Jake LaMotta—
there’s nine more methods of resistance
right here, in my Haggadah!